Happy 25th Birthday Samus Aran!

We had Mario's 25th anniversary and then Zelda's 25th now its Metroids turn.

I absolutely love the Mario and Zelda games but for some reason the Metroid games are at the top of my Nintendo list, I wouldn't say the Metroid games aren't popular because they really are, but compared to Mario and Zelda, Samus just seems more mysterious and different, I mean for years everyone thought Samus was a guy, oh how wrong they were . . . . soo very wrong . . . . hrm . . where were we  . . . oh yes Celebrating Samus's birthday :)

I first started the Metroid series with Super Metroid for the SNES and as you all know from my review of this game I LOVE IT! Its one of my top SNES games and in fact in my top 5 of all time games. The next game in the series I played was Metroid Prime for the Game Cube and wow did this game blew me away, The step from 2D to 3D graphics were amazing and brought what we imagined as kids on the SNES version to our screens. At first I didn't know if this kind of game play would work for Metroid, but ill give it to Nintendo they got it spot on.

Ive played almost all of the Metroid games but for me those two are my highlights in terms of game play and story, I cant ask for anymore out of a game than what Super Metroid, and Metroid Prime offer, 100% perfect to me :)

The only one disappointment to me is Nintendo. Where are you? Why are you not celebrating this event? they realised a limited addition game for Mario on the Wii, and Zelda got a Symphony Concert! So whats Samus getting? Well so far nothing :( not cool Nintendo not cool. At least we have a great collection of Metroid games to play so ill settle with that at least.

So there's nothing further to do but to raise our glasses to Samus and her amazing games she has given us over the past 25 years cheers :)

Sonic The Hedgehog 2

 One year after the realise of Sonic The Hedgehog 1 the second one came out and what a sequel it was, I cant say I remember this game when it was first released, being 2 years old probably didn't help :) but when a friend of mine got a Sega mega drive I remember living there for days on end, at that point the console I was on was the Super Nintendo so for me Sonic was a whole new concept far different from the Mario game play I was used to. One great addition to the game was the 2 player concept which meant neither me or my friend was sat waiting for the other to die to get a turn :) I'm not saying the 2 player was perfect but it did give the game some more playability.

 The concept behind the game is pretty much the same from the first, but this time round there's a few more additions, as I mentioned earlier the 2 player ability was added, but other than that there's a few more features to see, one of my favourites is the spin ability. The issue with the first game was at some stages, walking up a small hill for example slowed sonic down way to much, with this new spin ability you can spin you way out of such obstacles with ease and get sonic back up to the speed we all know and love. The 3rd change was to the bonus stages the way you get them has changed and the stages them self's have changed, were as before you needed 100 rings at the end of a stage and then jump through a giant ring, this time you get portals at check points and if you have 50 rings bam your there. The stages them self's are similar to a bobsleigh course and have you racing down them collecting as many rings as possible while avoiding the bombs.

The special stages in this game created a whole new view to sonic games and gave the first 3D sonic effect. The idea of these special stages is the same as the first game and is to gain Chaos Emeralds, the difference though was that once all 7 were found sonic could transform into super sonic, now I'm gonna be honest I absolutely love these stages and the super sonic form, but god these stages are sooo hard I've never been able to get all seven not on the original Sega or even on the PS3 version, which is crazy because on the PS3 version you can save when ever you like, yet no . . . I still cant do it *Sigh* Maybe one day.

If you were to ask me which I prefer sonic 1 or 2, I would have to say, I have no idea both are amazing and to choose one of them doesn't seem right to me, if your gonna buy an original sonic game buy 1 and 2 together you will never regret it. Its perfect game play, graphics, sound and levels make these games great and will always bring me back for a play through or two, its Sonic The Hedgehog 2 . . . WITH TAILS oh yer :)

Total Top Spec Gaming Score 10 / 10

Link to: Sonic The Hedgehog 1 review.
http://topspecgaming.blogspot.com/2011/03/sonic-1.html